TESTS were continuing today on Suffolk farms after a second case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found on a turkey farm on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

TESTS were continuing today on Suffolk farms after a second case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found on a turkey farm on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

The farm where the strain was confirmed yesterday was one of five where culls were taking place because of fears of "dangerous contact" with the initial case at Redgrave Park Farm, near Diss, discovered last week.

A spokeswoman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed that samples from two other farms which also had “dangerous contact” were currently at laboratories undergoing tests.

The site of the new infection, Hill Meadow Farm, Knettishall, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, is outside the original three kilometre protection zone set up around Redgrave Park Farm, but inside the wider restricted area which covers Suffolk and much of Norfolk.

All 9,000 turkeys have already been slaughtered at the new infected premises, which is operated by the same company, Redgrave Poultry, as the site of the first outbreak.

The premises were identified as having "dangerous contact' with the initial outbreak last week because staff for Redgrave Poultry, the operator of all five sites where culls have taken place, moved between the farms.

A new three kilometre protection zone has been set up around the farm, and an extended surveillance zone which surrounds both sites has also been established.

Geoffrey Buchanan, operations director of Redgrave Poultry, said: “Defra has also now completed culls at all five farms it identified. We await the test results from the final two farms - Stone House (in West Harling) and Bridge Farm (in Pulham).”